The
GOSPEL TRUTH

Power From On
High

by Charles G.
Finney

CHAPTER 13

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF
RIGHTEOUSNESS

During my Christian life I have been
asked a great many times, in substance, by thoughtful and anxious
souls: "What is the mental act or acts and states that God
requires of me?" I have found it profitable, and even
indispensable, with the commands of God before me, to question
consciousness for a satisfactory answer to this question. I have
satisfied myself, and, by the help of God, I trust I have aided
many others to their satisfaction. Be it understood, then, that by
the psychology of righteousness I mean to designate the mental act
and state that constitutes righteousness. I will endeavour to
develop this in the following order by showing:

I. What righteousness is not.

II. What it is.

III. How we know what righteousness
is.

IV. How a sinner may attain to
righteousness.

I. [What Righteousness Is
Not.]

1. Righteousness does not consist in the
outward life or in any physical or bodily act whatever. All of
these acts belong to the category of cause and effect. They are
necessitated by an act of the will and have in themselves no moral
character whatever.

2. Righteousness does not consist in
volition. Volition is an act of will, but necessitated by choice.
It is an executive act, and is the product of a purpose or choice.
It is designed as a means to an end. It is put forth to control
either the attention of the intellect, the states of the
sensibility, or the movements of the outward life by force.
Volition is both an effect and a cause. It is the effect of a
choice, purpose, intention. It is the cause of the outward life
and of many of the changes both of the intellect and sensibility.
Volition is a doing. Whatever we do we accomplish by the exercise
of volition. Volition is not, in the highest sense, a free act,
because it is an effect. It is itself caused. Hence, it has no
moral character in itself, and moral quality can be predicated of
it only as it partakes of the character of its primary
cause.

3. Righteousness does not consist in
proximate or subordinate choice. I choose an ultimate, supreme
end, for its own sake. This choice is not executive. It is not put
forth to secure the end, but is simply the choice of an object for
its own sake. This is ultimate choice. I purpose, or choose, if
possible, to secure this end. This is proximate or subordinate
choice. Strictly speaking, this choice belongs also to the
category of cause and effect. It results by necessity from the
ultimate choice. In the strictest sense, it is not a free act,
since it is itself caused. Hence, it has no moral character in
itself, but, like volition, derives whatever moral quality it has
from its primary cause, or the ultimate choice.

4. Righteousness does not consist in any of
the states or activities of the sensibility. By the sensibility I
mean that department of the mind that feels, desires, suffers,
enjoys. All the states of the sensibility are involuntary, and
belong to the category of cause and effect. The will cannot
control them directly, nor always indirectly. This we know by
consciousness. Since they are caused, and not free, they can have
no moral character in themselves, and, like thoughts, volitions,
subordinate choices, have no moral quality except that which is
derived from their primary cause.

II. What Righteousness Is.

Righteousness is moral rightness, moral
rectitude, moral uprightness, conformity to moral law. But what
mental act or state is that which the moral law or law of God
requires? Law is a rule of action. Moral law requires
action--mental action, responsible action, therefore free action.
But what particular form of action does moral law
require?

Free action is a certain form of action of
the will, and this is the only strictly free action. Christ has
taught us by His own teaching and through His inspired Prophets
and Apostles that the moral law requires love, and that this is
the sum of its requirements. But what is this love? It cannot be
the involuntary love of the sensibility, either in the form of
emotion or affection; for these states of the mind, belonging as
they do to the category of cause and effect, cannot be the form of
love demanded by the law of God. The moral law is the law of God's
activity, the rule in conformity to which He always acts. We are
created in God's image. His rule of life is therefore ours. The
moral law requires of Him the same kind of love that it does of
us. If God had no law or rule of action, He could have no moral
character. As our Creator and Lawgiver, He requires of us the same
love in kind and the same perfection in degree that He Himself
exercises. "God is love." He loves with all the strength of His
infinite nature. He requires us to love with all the strength of
our finite nature. This is being perfect as God is perfect. But
what is this love of God as a mental exercise? It must be
benevolence or good will. God is a moral agent. The good of
universal being is infinitely valuable in itself. God must
infinitely well appreciate this. He must see and feel the moral
propriety of choosing this for its own sake. He has chosen it from
eternity. By His executive volitions He is endeavouring to realize
it. The law which He has promulgated to govern our activity
requires us to sympathize with His choice, His benevolence, to
choose the same end that He does, for the same reason--that is,
for its own sake. God's infinite choice of the good of universal
being is righteousness in Him, because it is the choice of the
intrinsically and infinitely valuable for its own sake. It is a
choice in conformity with His nature and the relations He has
constituted. It must be a choice in conformity with His infinitely
clear conscience or moral sense. Righteousness in God, then, is
conformity to the laws of universal love or good will. It must be
an ultimate, supreme, immanent, efficient preference or choice of
the highest good of universal being, including His own. It must be
ultimate, in that this good of being is chosen for its own sake.
It must be supreme, because it is preferred to everything else. It
must be immanent, because it is innate and at the very foundation
of all His moral activity. It must be efficient, because, from its
very nature, it must energize to secure that which is thus
preferred or chosen with the whole strength of his infinite
nature. This is right choice, right moral action. The moral
quality, then, of unselfish benevolence is righteousness or moral
rightness. All subordinate choices, volitions and actions, and
states of the sensibility which proceed from this immanent,
ultimate, supreme preference or choice, have moral character in
the sense and only for the reason that they proceed from or are
the natural product of unselfish benevolence. This ultimate,
immanent, supreme preference is the holy heart of a moral agent.
Out of it proceeds, directly or indirectly, the whole moral or
spiritual life of the individual.

III. How We Know What Righteousness
Is.

I answer: By consciousness.

(a) By consciousness we know that our whole
life proceeds from ultimate choice or preference. (b) By
consciousness we know that conscience demands perfect, universal
love or unselfish benevolence; and, by consequence, it demands all
those acts and states of mind and outward courses of life that by
a law of our nature proceed from unselfish benevolence. (c) By
consciousness we know that conscience is satisfied with this,
demands nothing more, and accepts nothing less. (d) By
consciousness we know that conscience pronounces this to be right,
or righteousness. (e) By consciousness we know that this is
obedience to the law of God as revealed in our nature, and that
when we render this obedience we are so adjusted in the will of
God that we have perfect peace. We are in sympathy with God. We
are at peace with God and with ourselves. Short of this we cannot
be so. This I understand to be the teaching both of our nature and
the Bible. My limits will not allow me to quote Scripture to
sustain this view.

IV. Lastly, how a sinner may attain to
righteousness.

A sinner is a selfish moral agent. Being
selfish, he will, of course, make no other than selfish efforts to
become righteous. Selfishness is a state of voluntary committal to
the indulgence of the sensibility. While the will is in this state
of committal to self-indulgence, the soul will not and cannot put
forth any righteous act. The first righteous act possible to an
unregenerate sinner is to change his heart, or the supreme
ultimate preference of his soul. Without this he may outwardly
conform to the letter of God's law; but this is not righteousness.
Without this he may have many exercises and states of mind which
he may suppose to be Christian experience; but these are not
righteousness. Without a change of heart he may live a perfectly
outwardly moral and religious life. All this he may do for selfish
reasons; but this is not righteousness. I say again his first
righteous act must be to change his heart. To say that he will
change this for any selfish reason is simply a contradiction, for
the change of heart involves the renunciation of selfishness. How,
then, can a sinner change his heart or attain to righteousness? I
answer: Only by taking such a view of the character and claims of
God as to induce him to renounce his self-seeking spirit and come
into sympathy with God. To say nothing here of possibility, the
Bible reveals the fact and human consciousness attests the truth
that a sinner will never attain to such a view of the claims of
God as will induce him to renounce selfishness and sympathize with
God without the illuminations of the Holy Spirit. A sinner
attains, then, to righteousness only through the teachings and
inspirations of the Holy Spirit.

But what is involved in this change from
sin to righteousness?

(1) It must involve confidence in God, or
faith. Without confidence a soul could not be persuaded to change
his heart, to renounce self, and sympathize with God.

(2) It must involve repentance. By
repentance I mean that change of mind which consists in a
renunciation of self-seeking and a coming into sympathy with
God.

(3) It involves a radical change of moral
attitude in respect to God and our neighbour.

All these are involved in a change of
heart. They occur simultaneously, and the presence of one implies
the existence and presence of the others. It is by the truths of
the Gospel that the Holy Spirit induces this change in sinful man.
This revelation of divine love, when powerfully sent home by the
Holy Spirit, is an effectual calling. From the above it will be
seen that, while a sinner may live a perfectly outwardly moral and
religious life, a truly regenerated soul cannot live a sinful
life. The new heart does not, cannot sin. This John in his first
Epistle expressly affirms. A benevolent, supreme, ultimate choice
cannot produce selfish, subordinate choices or volitions. It is
possible for a Christian to backslide. If it were not,
perseverance would be no virtue. If the change were a physical
one, or a change of the very nature of the sinner, backsliding
would be impossible and perseverance no virtue. It is objected to
this view that backsliding must consist in going back to a
selfish, ultimate preference, and, therefore, involve an adverse
change of heart. What if it does? Must this not be, indeed, true?
Did not Adam and Eve change their hearts from holy to sinful ones?
But may a man change his heart back and forth? I answer: Yes; or a
sinner could not be required to make to himself a new heart, nor
could a Christian sin after regeneration. The idea that the same
person can have at the same time both a holy and a sinful heart is
absurd in true philosophy, contrary to the Bible, and of most
pernicious tendency. When a soul is backslidden, Christ calls upon
him to repent and do his first work over again.

Righteousness is sustained in the human
soul by the indwelling of Christ through faith and in no other
way. It cannot be sustained by purposes or resolutions
self-originated and not inwrought by the Spirit of Christ. Through
faith Christ first gains ascendancy in the human heart, and
through faith He maintains this ascendancy and reigns as king in
the soul.

There can be no righteousness in man back
of his heart, for nothing back of this can be voluntary;
therefore, there can be no righteousness in the nature of man in
the sense that implies praiseworthiness or virtue.

All outward conformity to the law and
commandments of God that does not proceed from Christ, working in
the soul by His Holy Spirit, is self-righteousness. All true
righteousness, then, is the righteousness of faith, or a
righteousness secured by Christ through faith in Him.

This
file is CERTIFIED BY GOSPEL TRUTH MINISTRIES TO BE
CONFORMED TO THE ORIGINAL TEXT. For authenticity
verification, its contents can be compared to the
original file at www.GospelTruth.net
or by contacting Gospel Truth P.O. Box 6322, Orange,
CA 92863. (C)2000. This file is not to be changed in
any way, nor to be sold, nor this seal to be
removed.